We all should stand (or sit) in observance of a very important anniversary near to our hearts (stomachs and brains as well!)... the anniversary of the ratification to the 21st Ammendment which repealed prohibition !

At my brewery locations on April 7, I am hosting a toast and doing a presentation that outlines what led up to and produced the demise of prohibition.

Remember... prohibition is FAR from an afterthought ! If you have followed the activities undertaken in the last 10 years by neo-prohibitionists, the extreme religious right and organizations like MADD... you can observe some striking similarities in their methods and results to what led to prohibition originally. The American Temperance Movement started in 1860, but it took until 1920 for their views to lead to the enactment of prohibition. Their tactics were to portray the imbiber as a "victim" of alcohol... that it was not possible to avoid it's grip once consumed. This tactic still is in evidence today, regardless of the realities of medical science. The most recent ad I saw with this approach was by a state agency on big, well placed billboards. The board pictured a large image of a beer being poured at a bar with the slogan: "95% of Rapes Start Here.". This is an example of blame the beer, not the person who commits an act.

We should all do the most we can to promote safe consumption of alcohol containing beverages and to dispel the notion that producers of the products we enjoy are not evil villans praying on the ills of society.
If we don't, this trend may continue to the point of furter restrictions or even re-prohibition. In most states, the blood alcohol content limit is .08. While I whole heartedly agree that drunk driving is a problem that should not exist and should be REALISTICALLY enforced WITHOUT RIGHTS ABUSE (checkpoints...etc...), this blood limit has no bearing on intoxication, but is merely a number. This law was forced on states with the threat of the removal of highway funds if not enacted.

So, it appears there are plenty of people out there attempting to protect ourselves from ourselves ! So what are you doing to stand up for your views ?

Eric
Head Anti-Prohibition Cheerleader

"Without beer, prohibition just doesn't work." - Homer Simpson

"I believe this would be a good time for a beer." - Franklin D. Roosevelt (stated upon the ratification of the 21st. Ammendment repealing Prohibition)

It is interesting to contemplate the irony of human societies that have become so 'sophisticated' as to decry the evils of beer (and other alcoholic beverages now). Such a staggering amount of evidence has piled up suggesting that beer - and the need to settle down and produce the dang stuff - was the likely impetus for society and civilization in the first place! On the world scheme, the irony is especially stark to realize that many of the modern countries occupying the former 'cradle of civilization' and outskirts currently ban all alcoholic consumption.

That's the problem right there, we have lost sight of where we came from and what's really important. Bring back the days when brewers were just below royalty and the high priests on the societal ladder!

And don't forget the reason the Mayflower landed where it did---they were running out of beer, one of the safest beverages to drink because it didn't carry waterborne diseases. Just think, the colonization of this country may have been vastly different if the Mayflower had just another barrel of beer. Oh, and let's not also forget that some of the best brewers in Europe were who? The monks. I also find it interesting that these anti-alcohol campaigns don't show a glass of wine in place of beer. What's up with that?

Benjamin Franklin
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"
First of all, The add that Eric references, shows a female hand waiting for the beer. Is this add stating that the female imbiber got raped because she was drunk, and it was her fault? If I were a woman, and especially one that had been raped, I would be really P!$$*d about that add.
Prohibition didn't work, and all it did was make a bunch of gangsters very wealthy. And make a bunch of people blind from drinkin gin made in a car radiator.
In countries that have no drinking age, because of a lack of potable water, there is less alchoholic problems. I think if everyone would start being grown ups, and quit looking for an out when the screw up, they would not have to keep passing all of these bumb $#!t laws.
The MADD people and the other protesters should not be against alcohol. Afterall, Beer has been helping ugly people have sex since it was invented. And you've seen what most of those protesters look like.

I feel that prohibition should be prohibited in all cases, not just alcohol. The criminalization of drug users (alcohol is a drug) is a severe drain on our society. I think that drug offenses are the single reason why prison populations have been sky rocketing in North America. Drug use is not a crime, and while the use of many drugs is self destructing behaviour, the improsment of drug users is even more damaging - to the user and society. We need to move addiction from the criminal to the medical, and start treating addiction as a disease, not a crime.